Coupled flat wire



Feb. 11, 1941. w, w GLEASON COUPLE!) FLAT WIRE Filed April 5, 1959 Il .m

Imre/:w: iam Q/[jeasolz Patented Feb. 11, 1941 UNITI-:DI STATES PATENT OFFICE- Nachman Springfilied Corporation,

Chicago,

Ill., a corporation of Illinois Application April 5, 1939, Serial No. 266,050

2 Claims.

The present invention relates to an improvement in the art of manufacturing articles or devices of lengths of fiat wires or strips of sheet metal, as for example, border frames for spring assemblies for upholstery such as is illustrated and described in Patent No. 2,124,695 dated July 26, 1938.

The main-object of the present invention is to provide eiiiciently and cheaply coupled flat wires by means of sheet metal clip and interengaging formations of overlapped end portions of flat wires, wherein said formations are formed simultaneously with the completion of the clip, so that the latter becomes wrapped around and permanently attached to the overlapped wires against movement longitudinally thereof for cooperation with the said interengaging formations of the wires for holding the latter against relative movement in any direction.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be readily understood from or are pointed out specifically in the following specification.

In the accompanying drawing illustrating a suitable embodiment of the invention- Fig. 1 is a perspective View of a pair of overlapped flat wires coupled with each other in accordance with the invention.

Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 are, respectively, transverse and longitudinal sectional views on an enlarged scale, taken on the Ilines 2--2 and 3 3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view on an enlarged scale showing the coupling clip used prior to its application to the wires to be coupled.

In Fig. 4 there is shown a sheet metal clip com; prising a fiat middle portion or web l equipped with parallel side edge anges 2. The width of the web l is preferably equal to that of the flat wires 3 to be coupled, shown in Fig. 2, while the height or depth of the flange 2 is substantially equal to four times the thickness of one of the flat wires 3.-

The wires 3 are initially devoid of the interengaging male formations 4 and female formations 5, shown in Figs. 2 and 3, disposed between the ends of the clip l-2.

As illustrated in Figs. 1, 2 and 3, the outer, or normally free end portions of the flanges 2 are bent to overlap the flat wire nearest said ends of said flanges to an extent to also overhang the cup-like formations or depressions 6 of the last-named wire and which are spaced from each other a distance appreciably less than the length of the clip and are spaced equally from the ends of the latter.

The portions of the flanges 2 which are first disposed to overhang the formations 6 are pressed into the latter in the form of arcuate anges 1 which, in cross-section, as shownin Fig. 2, are tapered toward their edges which contact with the bottom walls of the formations 6. These 5 arcuate flanges hug the opposed wall portions of the formations 6 very .close1y and firmly and, in effect, constitute integral parts of the lastnamed wall portions of the latter and cooperate with the dies, hereinafter described, which produce said formations 6, 5 and 4 and the projections 8 of the wires and the female formations 9 in the web 2 in which said projections 9 are received.

The structure comprising the overlapped wires and clips constitutes a unitary structure which cannot be disassembled and reassembled without employment of suitablel highpower tools, if at all, and wherein the series of vertically, axially aligned male and female formations 4, 5, 8 20 and 9 of the wires and clips, including the arcuate flanges 1 cooperate with each other and the Web l and flanges 2 of the clip to prevent all relative movement of the wires 3 and all movement of the clip relatively to said wires.

In some instances the depth of the flanges of the clips is such that the opposed edges of the same, when disposed about the wires 3, are disposed tangentially of the depressions which they border without providing the arcuate flanges which project into said depressions as shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3, but it is preferred to produce the structure as shown in the said last-mentioned figures.

I claim as my invention:

1. Means for maintaining overlapped portions of a pair of at wires against relative movement and separation, comprising interengaged spaced apart male and female formations in the opposed faces of said overlapped portions of said wires and 40 similar formations along the exposed faces of said wire aligned axially with said first-named for* mations thereof, and a sheet metal clip of greater length than the distance between said formations embracing and closely hugging said wires and said formations of same for preventing separation of said wires in the direction of the axes of said formations, said clip presenting opposed and spaced apart flange portions overlapping the exposed face of one of said wires along its side edgepportions, the inner edges of said flanges equipped with arcuate projections engaged in the female formations in the exposed face of one of said wires for preventing displacement of said clip.

2. Means for maintaining overlapped portions of a pair of flat wires against relative movement and separation, comprising interengaged spaced apart male and female formations in the opposed faces of said overlapped portions of said wires and similar formations along the exposed faces of said wire aligned axially with said first-named formations thereof, and a. sheet metal clip of greater length than the distance between said lo formations embracing and closely hugging said wires and said formations of same for preventing separation of said wires in the direction of the axes of said formations, said clip presenting opposed and `spaced apart flange portions overlapping the exposed faceoi one of said wires alongl its side edge portions, the inner edges of said flanges equipped with arcuate projections engaged in the female formations in the exposed face of one of said wires for preventing displacement of said clip, the middle portion of said clip opposed to the exposed face of the other of said wire equipped with sockets engaged with the male formations of the last-named. face of the 1( last-mentioned wire.

WILLIAM W. GLEASON. 

